Kukla's Korner Hockey

They are the best New York sports story going in the city other than Linsanity, and yet they haven’t captured the city’s imagination the way they’re going to if Henrik Lundqvist can just keep his pace up. But whether he can is the question on which the Rangers’ Stanley Cup hopes pivot. Because unlike the 39-year-old master facing him at the other end of the ice Tuesday night—Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur—Lundqvist, now in his seventh NHL season, is still waiting to have the NHL postseason of his life.

And no athlete in New York is under more pressure to make sure 2012 is the season he comes through.

Carrying the Rangers deep in the playoffs is the last asterisk Lundqvist needs to remove from his career, and he need look no further than Brodeur for a blueprint on how a goaltender who stands on his head night after night can take a team from merely contending to having a victory parade.

I wish people would stop painting Brodeur as some kind of savior who singlehandedly took the Devils from mediocre to great.

The Devils almost always had good teams. Brodeur only had to be above average—and when you look at save percentage (adjusted or otherwise) versus league average, most of the time that’s all he was.

Brodeur ended up getting most of the credit for his teammates (who were among the best in the game at limiting shots and quality scoring chances against) and his coaches (who decided to play him 70+ times a season, letting him rack up highly team-dependent counting stats like wins and shutouts).

The Devils almost always had good teams. Brodeur only had to be above average—and when you look at save percentage (adjusted or otherwise) versus league average, most of the time that’s all he was.

Posted by Sven22 from Grand Rapids on 03/07/12 at 11:49 AM ET

I’m sorry, but that’s a complete misconception that could only be born out of not watching enough of him. I had to see this guy roughly 8 times per year for about 17 years. I’ve probably seen him chased from 10 games lifetime, so I’ve seen him at his worst on plenty of occasions.

You’ve got it backwards. The Devils could be built the way they were and succeed because of Brodeur. He was the keystone. His puckhandling and smart reads made the defensive system possible, not the other way around. The whole team concept was built to play to its best player’s strengths. Brodeur’s.

That “anchored by Scott Stevens and Niedermayer” business just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, He earned, what, 3 vezinas with nobody better than Paul Martin in front of him?

Best goalie I’ve ever seen apart from Buffalo’s Hasek and, inconsistently, Roy (very inconsistently; Roy often sucked in Montreal when his head wasn’t in the game, which was often).